Flying

Anyone who endured airline travel over the Thanksgiving holiday last month can tell you that the best time for a visit to Grandma’s for a turkey dinner is also among the worst times to fly “the scheds.” (It didn’t help that Hanukah arrived early this year, starting on Thanksgiving Day.) Major airports strain to handle traffic loads during normal times, and when all those passengers want to get

Acoustics experts are finding ways to make business jets quieter than ever.
Racing through the lower stratosphere at Mach 0.85, pushed along by roaring jet engines and outfitted with pumps, actuator motors and fans, the business jet is naturally noisy.

Late in the day on Oct. 7, 1963, the first Learjet 23 took flight for the first time in Wichita, Kansas, just before the sun slipped below the prairie horizon. A local radio station reported that the Learjet was making its maiden flight, and people jumped in their cars to see the sight. The crowd cheered. Grown men cried.

Shareowners weigh their options as Avantair folds.
The demise of Avantair has undoubtedly caught your attention if you own or lease a fractional share, have a jet card or have put money on account for block charter.

Hush kits quiet the critics, while other upgrades add the latest bells and whistles.
In this age of $7-a-gallon Jet A fuel, what would you call someone who buys a 12-­passenger airplane that burns more than 550 gallons an hour? Crazy? Masochistic? How about...smart?

Quote/Unquote

““When I made the film The Invention of Lying, they gave me a private jet for getting back and forth between New York and London. I thought, ‘I will never use it’ but I ended up using it every weekend. You turn up, right, and the airport is completely empty. I mean, there’s just someone at the desk and then the pilot, who says, ‘Are you ready to go?’ and you say, ‘Don’t you want to see my passport?’ and he goes, ‘Oh yeah, I suppose I’d better.’”
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